Rainbow Lovers
by Ninefifteen
Summary: They play cat-and-mouse with each other, but who will win? GalaMiri centric, completely AU - did you imagine Miria as a biker ? - First year in university, nowadays. Maybe slight OOC for secondary characters...
1. 01  Meetings

**DISC **: I don't own Claymore.

This is the proper version of chapter 1 - I mean, without mistakes ^^ Thanks to my beta :D

**Chapter 1 - Meetings**

"You know, sometimes, I hate her."

Deneve had said it with an angry look. Miria nodded and Claire turned around to look at who they were talking about. It was Helen, who had gone across the pub a while ago; she was completely drunk, talking to a strange man, too close from him, and Deneve felt all of this could turn out very badly. Claire turned around again and shook her head with a desperate look saying, "It's too bad…"

Deneve sighed heavily and reluctantly, she stood up and forced her way through the crowd to join Helen.

The other two knew that convincing Helen would take a long time and that Deneve was the only one who could do that, so they took time to talk.

Miria appreciated talking with Claire. The latter was discreet and respectful; she never talked nonsense nor asked embarrassing questions.

"You know, I saw Flora yesterday."

"Aww… and what happened?"

"She returned me the ring I gave her."

"I'm sorry for you…"

Claire looked at Miria sadly. Flora was Miria's girlfriend for three years. They planned to live together; Miria was even about to leave her apartment to settle in with her. And then one morning, she was dumped without any warning. The only explanation Miria managed to get was, "I received the answer of that Irish university, I was on their waiting list but they finally accepted me, so I'll be gone for three years." And Flora didn't think that their relationship could survive it.

Saying that, Flora hadn't cried, she didn't even seem moved; her face was expressionless. Yesterday she brought back the ring Miria gave her to celebrate their first anniversary, and today, right at the moment they were talking about her, Flora was in a plane.

"I'm lost" Miria said. "Only two weeks ago we were still together and now she's broken three years of relationship. What am I supposed to do?"

"Maybe you could just cry. Or talk, as we do. If you want, come to my place tomorrow after school, so we can talk more."

"Perhaps. Thanks, Claire…"

"You're welcome."

"It's good to see that I can count on you, and also on Deneve, and Helen…"

"… but not right now I guess" Claire added while she saw Deneve holding one of Helen's arms and coming back with her, who was stupidly laughing.

"We should go while I can control her," Deneve said.

"Alright. Let's go," Miria agreed.

Claire stood up, took her bag and catching Helen's other arm, helped Deneve to take her outside. Miria sighed, seeing this, then took her crash helmet and followed the other three.

One moment later, they were outside. Apparently Helen wasn't able to stand by herself anymore so she was simply hanging onto both her friends, one arm around their neck as she kept raving. Near her motorbike, Miria was about to put her helmet on her head, when Helen suddenly collapsed in silly laughter yet again.

"I preferred when she remained silent," Deneve said. "Stand up, you fool!"

And Helen went out of control again, Deneve chasing her in the street; Miria and Claire following them with their eyes.

Miria suddenly asked, "Claire, do you think Teresa would mind if I leave my bike at your place for the night?"

Claire was living with Teresa two streets away from the town centre; they would reach the house ten minutes later. Miria planned to help Deneve bring Helen home (the two were roommates near their university, twenty minutes of tramway from the centre), because she knew that Deneve, as strong as she could be, couldn't manage her drunk friend all alone in a place like the tramway. Helen often drank; but this time, she went far away her limits and she wasn't able to revert.

"Not at all," Claire answered.

"Fine. Thanks."

Miria caught up with her two friends and quite roughly put her helmet in Helen's hands:

"Well, play with it for a while and stay quiet!"

Helen briefly looked at the helmet before trying to give a salute to Miria; she then said with her drunken voice:

"Understood, Captain!"

Afterwards, she put the helmet on her head, opened the visor… then she stretched out her arms and moving her hands like on a motorbike handlebars, she began to sing out loud, "Je n'ai besoin de personne, en Harley Davidson…!"

Then she turned around the place, still singing.

"What a good idea, Miria. Congrats," said Deneve.

"Have you a better one? Anyway, catch her, we're going to Claire's, I will leave my bike and come back with you."

"Thanks. I didn't know how I could take her in the tramway all alone. Who knows, she may bite someone or vomit or…" Deneve listed the horrendous things the drunken Helen had already done in the tramway, but now that Miria was coming with her, she was smiling with relief.

Deneve had managed to catch Helen and the latter was walking with them – Deneve and Claire still holding her by thearms – thoughshe didn't stop singing. Now, she had switched on some obscure anime soundtrack, but since she didn't speak Japanese, she simply hummed the melody, adding here and there the very few words she knew. Her voice was distorted both by alcohol and by the helmet she had kept on her head; the whole situation could have been hilarious if it hadn't been at least the 100th time it was occurring.

"We should have watched her more closely," Claire said.

"But I did…" Deneve answered. "But this man never stopped buying her drinks… If not, she wouldn't be like that…"

"When will she understand that those men just wanna have it off with her…" Miria sighed.

"I'll explain toher again tomorrow when she'll be sober…"

They arrived in front of the old, heavy green door of a two-storied town-house. Claire opened it and moved aside to let Miria enter the hall with her bike. Thanking Claire, she began to attach carefully the two anti-theft devices. Helen continued singing, louder this time.

"Shut up!" Deneve hissed, "You're gonna wake Teresa!"

"Oh come on…" Helen persisted, with a gesture of her helmeted head which could have knock Deneve out if she hadn't moved aside in time. "You know Teresa can't sleep until Claire's back…"

"Think of the neighbors, then!"

"Don't care about the fu–"

A door on the left, near the stairs going to upper levels, just opened and all heads turned to that direction.

"What's going on?"

This was a tall, slim, beautiful woman with long, wavy, fair hair. She was as elegant as usual, wearing a black silk dressing gown, and her look almost immediately rested on Claire.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"Yes, Teresa," Claire answered, approaching her as if she wereattracted by the very simple presence of the woman.

Everyone greeted Teresa – even Helen, and Teresa smiled when she heard the muffled drunk voice under the helmet whereupon Claire quickly explained the situation. Miria was done with the motorbike and they all were ready to move; so, they politely refused Teresa's offer to stay there for the night.

"Take care then!" said Teresa, returning inside the house.

"Send a message when you're ok," added Claire, her fingers typing in the air on an imaginary phone keypad. The other three nodded – well, Helen shouted something instead – and went out.

Claire entered the house, locked the door and put her bag on the nearby sofa. Teresa was standing in the kitchen, putting a mug of water in the microwave oven. This was for her traditional tea-before-sleeping - rooibos tea, one which doesn't prevent onefrom sleeping.

"Did we wake you up, Teresa?"

"No", she replied, turning around to face Claire and leaning against the worktop. "I was reading some paper for the literature class of tomorrow…"

Claire put her arms roundher waist, looking up at her with a smile:

"You never loved the start of the new year…"

"Well, there are always dozens of first year students; they never listen to anything, and half of them finally never come during lessons. Plus you don't even know if they'll come again or if they vanish in the nature… I hate this - when I have to put 'zero' in dozens of boxes of a listing just because they don't even take the exam."

"You shouldn't worry so much about the first year ones… you know it's like that every year."

"You're right. I know it. But when you choose to become ateacher, especially in university… it's because you love what you do, and to pass on your passion for a domain… and seeing that people don't care is always a little painful and frustrating."

Claire, tightening her embrace, rested her face against the other woman's shoulder.

"Always trying to comfort me…?" Teresa asked – of course it was a false question, she already knew the answer, and she liked that answer.

"I hate sensing any bad emotion in you."

Teresa placed a kiss on Claire's hair and they spent a few seconds in silence – only disturbed by the purr of the oven. After a short while, Claire looked up again:

"Helen said that you can't sleep until I'm back."

"So what?"

"You shouldn't… I'm okay with Miria and the others. Nothing can happen to me…"

"Are you blaming me for loving you?"

They looked deeply into each other eyes. Teresa had that faint smile of hers; Claire wasn't sure whether she was joking with this question…

"Never…" she just answered.

Teresa's smile was now a wide, beautiful, shining smile; Claire suddenly felt proud to live with such a woman. The oven rang joyfully, breaking their embrace. Claire quickly opened an elegant wooden box, took a tea ball and filled it halfway with some dark red sawdust-like powder, then put it in the mug and gave it to Teresa.

"Thanks, my dear."

"I like preparing your sleepy-tea," Claire joyfully remarked. "But now that I'm here, go to sleep!"

"Okay, Mom…" Teresa replied, smiling again. Yes. Everything was definitely better when Claire was around her.

Claire took her bag, turned the lights off and followed Teresa in the corridor. They stopped in front of the door to their right.

"Have a good night, my dear," Teresa said, kissing her on the forehead.

"The same to you, Teresa," she smiled at her and vanished into her room. She heard Teresa in her own room, the "click" of the bedside lamp's switch, even the rustling of the sheets and the creak of the ageless bed. She took a look around her room. She loved that place. She loved living with Teresa. It surely was the best thing that ever happened to her. She appreciated having a social life, friends, whatever, but her true harbor, that was here. She smiled and quietly prepared herself to sleep.

* * *

"Helen, you know, soon or later, you'll have to give me back my helmet…" said Miria, threatening.

"You don't need it, you're on foot."

"But if you damage it, I swear I'll kill you!"

The three girls were in the tramway for a few minutes. There were no sitting places of course so they had to look very closely at Helen: her drunkenness was particularly strong tonight and she could do almost anything. She still had Miria's helmet on her head so at least nobody could see her face. Nothing could break her reputation.

She barely stood, hanging onto a bar. Happily she hadn't spoken to anyone yet; however, they hadfifteen minutes left to travel and anything could happen.

Suddenly, the tramway stopped; and what happened… had to happen.

"Ow!"

A young woman leaning on a window was looking angrily at Helen. The latter had just lost her balance and her helmeted-head had just frankly gotten to know her shoulder. And now the girl was holding that painful place where she would very soon have a big bruise.

"Oh, I'm so soooorry!" shouted Helen, raising her hand in her direction – but the girl disdainfully pushed her hand away. "Anyway, Miria, your helmet works pretty well! I didn't feel any harm, not at all…"

"Sorry about her," Miria apologised to the unknown girl while the tramway set off again, forcing Deneve to embrace Helen, preventing her from falling on someone else.

"Are you okay?" Miria asked, more so to stop looking at Helen – and prevent herself from killing her –than to really know the answer.

"It's okay, I'm not made of glass."

Miria took a more detailed look at the girl. Happily she was tall enough to have been hit only on the shoulder. What would have they done if she had been knocked out?

Despite the season – early September in southern France was almost as stifling as the middle of summer – she was wearing blue hip-hugger jeans with a white sleeveless, low-cut T-shirt which was tight around her breasts and then looser, light enough to not keep warm. She had a long, thin, silver neck-chain but the pendant was hidden just under the edge of the décolletage. When Miria realized she was watching that girl so openly, she reddened and looked away. She was slim; her whole body looked harmonious… she had endless blonde hair, cobalt-blue eyes, thin lips – she was beautiful.


	2. 02 Written on her face

**DISC:** I don't own Claymore.

**Chapter 2 – Written on her face**

* * *

Claire, Miria, Helen and Deneve were seated at a table outside a sandwich shop, which was located near the university campus. The sun was at its highest, shining brightly on the earth as the university was as usual, filled with student crowds at this hour. People walked in groups, laughing and chatting loudly with joyful tones as Miria observed keenly with her chin propped on her palm. Listening to all these noises was quite different than their first lesson, its silence, and…

"So, what do you think about this morning's Latin lesson?" Deneve asked, disrupting Miria's deep thoughts.

"Well, that it was pretty hard to understand," Claire answered, folding her quarter of pizza so that it would be easier to eat.

"We should've already taken Latin lessons in high school," Miria remarked with a sigh. "It's gonna be tough and-"

"Oh please!" Helen cut in, "Let's stop talking about it. We'll never know why we study _ancient_ Latin in our "_modern_ literature" section anyway. Let's focus on other lessons that will be more interesting," she added, looking for something inside the wrapping of her sandwich.

"Oh my, has anyone seen the mayonnaise?"

The other girls looked at each other questioningly.

"I see," Helen sighed. "There's no way I can eat that thing without mayo." She stood up and made her way through the crowd towards the shop, grumbling.

"It's funny that she's not hung over after what she drank last night," Miria said.

"She can hold her drink now," Claire added, "It's frightening. She really drinks too much…"

"But hey, if she were smoking instead... or taking drugs, that would be far worse," Deneve said, trying to find something positive into this worrying situation.

She suddenly opened her eyes wide, noticing something behind Claire who was opposite her.

"Hey, Miri! Look there. Isn't that the girl from the tramway?"

Miria followed her friend's gaze. A girl was indeed coming out of another shop with a water bottle in her hand. She was striding towards the university with her eyes fixed on the main entrance ahead. She was not that far from where the girls were and they could notice an air of remoteness and mystery about her. She stopped on the sidewalk before crossing the road, and when she took a look at her left to check if any car was passing by, Miria saw her beautiful face. She noticed her delicate features, more accurately than she did the previous night, and noticed how haughty she could seem. The girl finally crossed the road and Miria kept her lengthy gaze fixed on her until she saw her endless blonde hair disappearing behind the university main gate.

She then absent-mindedly turned back to the table as her friends looked at her questioningly.

"You were watching her like a cat stalking a mouse," Deneve remarked.

"So what?" Miria answered, "I just…"

"You just...?"

"Ahem..." Miria cleared her throat, lacking words to speak.

"Anyway, she's pretty," said her short-haired friend. "Have you already forgotten all about Flora?"

"No, Flora's still in my head," Miria replied. "You're the one who's forgotten, when you think I can be attracted to someone else."

"Yeah, you can't move on that fast," Claire said quietly with a disapproving look towards Deneve. "But still, nothing does forbid you to find someone beautiful," she added.

"Who's beautiful?" Helen asked, just back from the shop with a huge portion of mayonnaise.

"Last night's girl," Deneve answered.

"What girl?" she lightly asked, flooding her food with sauce.

"The one you hit when you were drunk…"

"Oh, he-he, she's here? Where is she?" Helen asked, looking all around.

"She was," Claire answered, rolling the empty wrapping of her pizza into a ball – she was used to having light lunches, so this little portion was far enough for her. "And she just entered the university."

"Good news! I guess that means that I might get the chance to apologize!" Helen said before taking a huge bite of her sandwich.

"You fool," Deneve retorted, "There are minimal chances of you seeing her again. She wasn't with us in class this morning, so she's definitely not in our year…"

"So what? I could cross paths with her randomly and…"

"Ay! Stop it."

Miria hushed them with her characteristically calm yet serious tone; the girls wisely chose to change the subject.

* * *

2 hours later, it was almost 2:00 PM. Claire had insisted on arriving early for the next lesson, so the girls were waiting for their teacher in an old, dusty lecture hall. They had chosen to sit halfway-up so that they were both not too far from the board and not amongst the really-too-serious-students of the first row. Helen would've considered the line "you're a serious student!" as a personal insult indeed.

"Hey, Deneve!" Helen suddenly called, "Refresh my memory…" She pointed out someone who just sat at the second row: "Isn't that the girl I hit yesterday?"

Deneve took a look at who she was pointing at and answered, "Yeah, it's her. I'm surprised you can remember her face…"

But even before Deneve's words could reach Helen's ears, the latter had already run down the stairs. She stopped beside the girl and said with a smile, "Hi, you might not remember me because of the helmet I was wearing last night but I'm the one who hit you, so I wanted to apologize!"

The other girl was looking at her with her eyes nonchalantly saying "So...?", and both suddenly and surprisingly, Helen felt awkward.

"So, err, is there any way I could make it up to you?"

The seated girl, returning her attention to the book she was reading, didn't spare Helen another glance. It wasn't a big deal to her and she thought she was taking it a little too seriously. She couldn't care much about what had happened in the tramway even though her shoulder was still hurting a bit. However, since Helen wanted to so badly to make up for the incident, the long-haired girl with cobalt-blue eyes considered messing with her a little bit.

She closed her book, turned to face her again and ran her eyes from head to toe in a kind of ambiguous manner before saying, "Well, I don't know... hmm, how about a date?"

"A da-… what?" Helen blushed in surprise and started scratching the back of her head. "Oh, err, dates are not my kinda thing, but…" she stated, leaving her sentence hanging as she vaguely pointed to her friends before adding, "We're all gonna go have some drinks after class, would you like to join us?"

After listening to Helen, she looked up a few rows higher. She saw a girl with very short hair and another one with chin-length hair as they talked in low tones, but then is when she met the eyes of a third one, a strawberry blonde girl. She instantly recognized her beautiful face which was embellished by the distinctly thick, spiky locks that Miria was known for. Afterward, she turned around to face Helen and said with a mischievous smile, "Okay, let's do that. We just have to wait for each other at the end of this lesson. Though I've gotta say... I won't have all the time in the world."

"Perfect!" Helen exclaimed with a big grin. "See you later then!"

As she left to return to her seat, she suddenly stopped and turned back: "By the way, I forgot to ask your name…?"

"Oh. It's Galatea..."

"You took forever to apologize," Miria grumbled the moment Helen returned. Her voice was slightly muffled since she had put her helmet on the table, crossed her arms on it and rested her chin on top.

They were each seated at opposite ends with their friends seated in between. So as Helen was going to answer Miria, she leaned over the desk to face her.

"Well, I asked what I could do and then she asked for a date but hell, I love guys, so I told her she could come have a drink with us later and she said yes."

"You should've accepted a date. It's your problem after all," Miria sighed.

Of course the strawberry blonde didn't want to know this girl better. Of course this girl was beautiful. Of course she may have been attracted to her. And she already was, indeed. Miria had the strong feeling that because of this new goddess-looking girl, she would forget Flora faster than she thought. It was hard to admit. In her opinion, you can't forget someone you deeply loved for three years so quickly… Even if in her case, it could be a good thing.

She definitely was attracted. And she would probably be more and more if she got to know this girl. And she didn't want to suffer anymore.

"Please, girls, shut up," Claire whispered. "_She_'s here…"

Deneve and Helen, who were arguing about silly things, zipped their mouths. Miria stopped mulling over her feelings and slowly put her helmet at her feet. The four girls focused on the teacher's desk especially Claire, who suddenly had a dreamy look and a light smile.

The teacher, who just walked in, put a pile of papers and two thick books on the desk then looked all around the place. She faintly smiled as her eyes briefly sparkled with love when they met Claire's. The latter thought other students had noticed this but she couldn't care less. When Teresa looked at her the way she just did, even in front of a hundred of students, Claire invariably melted. She then heard some guys behind her talk about how hot and sexy Teresa was and other nasty vulgarities. This instantly made Claire sick, making her feel like turning around and punching them in the face.

The other three girls had also heard the slang comments. Miria wrote "Ignore those assholes" on Claire's notepad as Teresa was introducing her lesson with much seriousness – "This lesson's title is 'Character creation process within Balzac's novels' and…"

Helen, on the other side, was thinking about a way to save Teresa's and Claire's honour. As soon as an idea popped in her head, she whispered into Deneve's ear,

"What if I told those guys that she's a lesbo?"

"That'd be worse, you fool…"

"How so? It's a good idea!"

"No way! They'll fantasize and drool."

"But –"

"Isn't it your ex-boyfriend who asked you to have sex with him and another girl? … But hey, I may be wrong."

"Not funny," Helen grumbled, turning red. She then focused back on Teresa and after that, nothing else interrupted the lesson.

* * *

After the course, Claire chose to go back home with Teresa, indifferent to the curious looks of the other students. She left the other three with Galatea and reminded Miria to join her later as she suggested the previous night. Miria had to take back her motorbike anyway.

Twenty minutes later, the other girls were sitting at a table outside a café, at the centre of the town.

Galatea looked closely at each of them. The day before, she had been immediately taken by the strawberry blonde. It was quite interesting that they were in the same class, and now, at the same table. She figured it was the work of fate.

The waiter arrived quickly. Deneve and Miria asked for ordinary alcohol-free drinks while Helen ordered a pint of lager. Galatea followed her with a brown ale beer.

"Ha! Finally! Someone _knows_ how to drink!" Helen proudly exclaimed.

"Oh, I usually drink champagne," Galatea answered in a slightly pretentious tone that no one seemed to notice except Miria. "Though right now, it's too early in the afternoon to do that."

"I never have any occasion to drink champagne…" Helen sighed. "Boys only pay beers, and they think that they can have me with that! Pssh!" she lied.

"So I gather I can have you with champagne?" Galatea wittily asked.

"Err... I already told you that I'm not into this," Helen answered, blushing again.

"Anyway, there are lots of places where you can meet girls," Deneve added while the waiter put their drinks on the table.

"Yeah, and Miria could take you there!" Helen chimed in.

"Sure, why not…?" Miria agreed reluctantly after a short while. "I indeed know some of these places."

"So, let's drink to the end of my single status!" Galatea said, raising her pint. She now understood why nobody had seemed surprised when she somewhat openly flirted with Helen with the champagne remark: Miria shared her _tastes_… which was of the higher interest…

There was a clink and each girl drank a bit. As they put their glasses down again, Deneve felt that Miria was not at ease, though she couldn't figure out why she had this feeling. Thus, she chose to end the "relationship topic".

"Out of the subject," she concluded. "I was wondering why I didn't see you this morning…" she added, addressing Galatea.

"This morning?" Galatea spoke with surprise in her voice. "And where should I have been this morning, in your opinion?"

"In the Latin lesson. I mean, you're obviously a first year student, so why weren't you there?"

"Who do you think I am, to be taking the "beginner level" lesson?" Galatea answered, standing on her dignity, and suddenly, Miria felt inexplicably both irritated and pleased by this haughtiness. "My Latin course is tomorrow. Of course I chose the "expert mode"…"

"I've heard that the "expert mode" was only for the crazy people of the "ancient languages" section, and not for people of our level," Miria remarked. "So you pretend to be that good at the subject?"

"You have no idea of how many languages I can speak with my tongue," Galatea retorted with a teasing look towards the strawberry blonde. She drank a bit and delicately ran the tip of her tongue over her lips to remove the beer's foam.

Deneve and Helen exchanged a silent glance. Something would definitely happen between the other two, they thought.

Miria briefly looked at Galatea's lips and felt something unknown growing up inside her heart.

Galatea took a look at her watch – it was time to go. She said she had Japanese lessons to take and that she didn't want to be late, which was true. She emptied her pint at a speed that left Helen speechless before saying goodbye. She deliberately didn't look at Miria since she had just won her over and they both knew it. The trick of "the tongue on the lips" was a deathblow on many girls, including Miria, obviously.

As she walked away, Galatea was pretty sure that Miria was still watching her. She had the deep feeling that their meeting would be decisive in their lives, though only time would tell what fate had in store for them. And she perfectly knew that this "something unknown" was "growing up inside Miria's heart", as if it had been written on her face.

081011 1436 Kurea1802/Ninefifteen

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry it took me so long ^^; I hope you'll enjoy it! Feel free to comment :)

Thank you very much to my dear beta. You did an amazingly-awesome-wonderful work with this one ! 3


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